Content area
Full Text
Seniors aren't sweating their ages. They're sweating as they exercise more, bringing big business to local health-care providers.
Some providers treat more elderly patients who have injured themselves playing sports or lifting weights. Other providers rehabilitate more people who have had knee- and hip-replacement surgeries around age 50, about 15 years earlier than the prior generation, so they can return more quickly to being active and losing weight.
Drayer Physical Therapy Institute in Swatara Township sees an influx of geriatric patients with sports and exercise injuries because they're becoming more active, said Craig Bouslough, the clinic's chief operating officer. Tennis elbow, shoulder pain for weightlifters, knee pain for runners, back pain for golfers and yoga injuries are common ailments the institute is rehabbing.
"That's great because it means they're staying active longer," Bouslough said. Exercise fights heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis and arthritis, he added. " ... Before, retirement was an excuse to be a couch potato; now, it's an opportunity to be fit."
Dr. John Deitch, a team physician at Penn State University, said seniors primarily are injuring themselves more because they...